Category: Art

I really enjoy designing t-shirts and I love Studio Ghibli so I was excited to learn that there’s a Totoro t-shirt contest going on. I also really love drawing trees, so a Tree of Life inspired design felt like a good fit. My idea was to show Totoro and friends hidden underneath and in the tree, just outside of plain sight from the human world.

I’ve always wanted to do art trades but never knew who might be interested and I felt a bit too shy to ask. I thought it might be cool to come up with a way for people who are interested in art trades to let others know that they’re open to it. That’s what sparked the idea for April Art Trade. (That and it’s my birthday month and I just wanted a bunch of art for my birthday!)

The idea is that you’d let people know you’re interested in participating in art trades during the month of April. Look for artists who are open to trades or ask a friend! Once you’ve completed the trade, tag the recipient and use the hashtag #aprilarttrade.

#AprilArtTrade Rules/Guidelines

1. Ask a friend for an art trade!
(Please don’t message artists you don’t know unless they are open to random trades!)

2. Tell each other about your interests!
(Don’t ask for a specific drawing, just let them know your favorite characters, animals, etc.)

3. Set a range for the amount of time you’re both willing to spend on the art trade.

4. Draw something for them and post it with the hashtag #AprilArtTrade!

Animals have always been on my list of “things I want to get better at drawing, but never actually draw.” (By the way, if you have a list like that too, knock it off.) So I was excited to learn about Fauna Focus, because it’s great motivation!

Every month Fauna Focus features a different animal and shares information about it. Artists are invited to create artwork of the animal and share it using the hashtag #faunafocus. The project was founded by artist Noelle M. Brooks who specializes in drawing and painting animals.

The featured animal for March 2018 is the dhole. Dholes live in the mountains so I wanted to incorporate its habitat into the background. This project was really fun and I look forward to participating in future months.

Quick update about Extra Life… all of the rewards have been sent! Thank you again to everyone who donated to the campaign. It was my first year ever doing Extra Life and together we raised $142, surpassing my original goal. Thank you again. 🙂

Leading up to Extra Life, I did a bunch of sketches of Final Fantasy characters. Anyone who donated at least $10 got access to these. Anyone who donated at least $20 was promised a high resolution download of a finished piece. I wasn’t even sure what the piece would be, just that it was going to be FF6 related. I ended up turning one of the sketches into a finished art nouveau inspired piece that incorporates a lot of elements from the game.

I really enjoyed participating in Extra Life and I will definitely do it every year. If you’re interested in getting a hi-res download of this piece it will be available again next year as a reward, as well as some other new stuff hopefully. Thanks again to everyone who donated and everyone who came to the stream to hang out!